Oakland A’s relocation special report podcast with Augie Musenburg: Baseball Commissioner Manfred says Oakland Mayor Thao was not truthful

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred addresses the media. Manfred said this week that Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao is not being truthful regarding getting a new stadium deal done in Oakland (AP file photo)

On the Oakland A’s relocation podcast with Augie Musenburg:

#1 A San Francisco Chronicle column written by John Shea title Oakland vs. MLB as Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred and Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao exchange unpleasantries regarding who dropped the ball in trying to get a deal done in Oakland.

#2 You might recall that during the All Star game in Seattle Mayor Thao went to Seattle and presented Manfred with 30 copies of books for each team owner documenting how Oakland was close to a deal with the A’s before team president David Kaval had called and pulled out. Do you feel that this is the crux of why Manfred has some strong words about Thao after giving him the documentation and he felt she’s not telling the truth?

#3 Manfred said that Mayor Thao was good at pointing out how MLB got this wrong and the A’s got that wrong but questioned if Thao handled getting the A’s deal done in Oakland well Manfred said “Don’t think so.” It should be noted that Thao had been newly elected and had only been in office a few weeks when the A’s said they had a binding deal with Las Vegas while they were in the middle of negotiating with Oakland and backed out of the deal.

#4 Manfred also said that Thao is about to lose her third team, making it sound that this happened under her watch and that she’s not telling the truth. Manfred also said he and Thao never talked about Oakland getting an expansion team and the city keeping the A’s name. Was Manfred upset about being presented the books and that he wants this deal in Vegas all along.

#5 Manfred also said that Thao didn’t reach out to him after winning election. Manfred said that Thao didn’t reach out after she won election and took that Manfred took that as a signal they weren’t negotiating about the A’s anymore.

Augie Mesenburg is a podcast contributor at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

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